This invention generally relates to electronic musical instruments, and, more particularly to electronic circuits for use in an electronic organ for simulating the sound produced by a group of people clapping hands.
During the evolutionary development of electronic organs, musical devices have been developed which automatically produce repetitive rhythms for accompaniment with the organ, and such rhythm pattern generators have, in turn, stimulated the development of electronic circuits for generating a variety of sounds, often spoken of as "instruments". Examples of such circuits are described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,181,059 and 4,198,891 for simulating the sound of a wire brush rotated around the head of a snare drum, and for simulating the sound of percussive instruments, such as a Tom Tom, respectively.
A sound typically and effectively used by groups who play country rhythm, gospel rhythm, and soul rhythm, an increasingly popular class of music, is that produced by a group of people clapping hands in tempo with the music. It having been found desirable to make this type of sound available in an electronic organ, as an adjunct to the many other "instruments" that have heretofore already been simulated by electronic means, it is the primary object of the present invention to provide an electronic circuit of modest cost for simulating the sound of a group of people clapping hands.